1. How do your products represent social groups or issues?
My product represents the normality of minority groups. The actors in the film are very diverse. Many tv shows and movies have mainly white casts. By including dark skin and mixed races, this is a way to incorporate more diversity into the film. This can help represent more people into the media world and give many others opportunity. In film production, many all-Black cast films or mixed casts get awarded mainly because they aren’t a white cast. However, this should become a norm in production. Having diverse casts is a way to add more diversity in media and normalize the talent many minorities have but don’t have the opportunity to show. The film also represents same-sex relationships between the characters. The idea of having only LGBTQ+ relations in the film breaks the stereotypes that many people have. This is a big issue in modern societies that are normalize opposite-gender relations. This “default setting” or assumption of straight orientation can be very damaging to the LGBTQ+ community, especially those who conceal their sexuality. I wanted to break this “straight” stereotype since there’s such a broad spectrum in the LGBTQ+ community. This is also a way to help equalize and speak out for these relations, genders and identification in the modern worlds. There’s been a huge misconception and violence towards people in these categories. By representing them and destroying this closed idea, this can majorly benefit many people and lives.
2. How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
There are many influences of our production that supported the branding of our film. Since our movie was based around teenagers and high school, I tried making the film more modern. My partner and I had this idea for the main group of characters to be the “It Girl”. This is essentially an iconic personality or expression of a character in a film. Since the most famous “It Girls” were around the late 1900’s to early 2000’s, I wanted to add some of the editing styles and scenes into the short film. One of the most famous scenes was the “Mean Girls” phone call scene. I really liked this idea and adding it to the film it brought together the aesthetic of the friend group. Another idea was a confrontation scene between rival friend groups. My partner and I really liked the idea of having two different friend groups having a dramatic but also entertaining confrontation. Since many films portray the main character as disliking the other group, we had many ideas on what the ending. At the end of our film, this is where the story completely changes, and the romance part comes in and plays a role. The main character confesses her love to the girl in the opposite group. This gives a shock to the audience since they were portrayed as having no interest in this character. The other girl also plays off the confession and leaves the audience on a cliffhanger.
3. How do your products engage with the audience?
My product engages with my audience in numerous ways. First off, our cast is very diverse. In mainstream media, many shows and movies that are labelled with a “diverse cast” are still predominately white. All of the actors in my short film are a mix of Asian, Black and Hispanic actors. This is promising to be portraying more diversity in many areas. The plot of the movie is also based around LGBTQ+ characters. This can appeal to many different groups and create a sense of representation for them. Many of the jokes and lines match with the interest that our generation use. For example, astrology has gained popularity in the past few years and to include that into the film can relate with many of the teen and young adult audience. People relate others behavior to different astrology signs. Also, the pronunciation of the different signs many people make fun of. I included these jokes into the script so the audience can feel the similarity of the film with what they see on social media. My partner and I decided to do create rival friend groups. The main friend groups in the film have a completely different aesthetic. Many groups nowadays tend to stay within the categories that match them and their aesthetic. By having different groups with different interests, this can be a way to relate with many people.
4. How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
I’ve researched about genres that related to my film. The main genre of the film is Romance with comedic elements. My short film is based on a teenage love story. The main twist I wanted in the film was for all the characters to be in LGBTQ+ relationships. My partner and I created the other characters in the film to be in relationships. We did this since the love confession with the main character was a short scene at the end. This also gives a hint towards the ending since the main character hasn’t found their love yet. This uses conventions in romance and gives a unique perspective but still fitting in with the high school life. The only way our film challenges conventions of romance is our own character not searching for their interests. In most traditional romance movies, many of them have a specific person in mind from the start of the film. In my film, our character reveals their love interest at the end without any suspicion. In the comedic aspect of the film, I created jokes that resembles modern humor for teens and young adults. In romcoms or comedy movies, many of the jokes are stand up corny. Our film challenges the comedic elements since most of our jokes were in spite of the other friend groups. The jokes essentially make fun of the other characters in a humorous way that younger generations relate to.
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